This invention relates to beverage dispensers and it has particular relationship to readily portable beverage dispensers. The invention will be described herein as applied to a beer dispenser to which it is uniquely applicable. It is understood that to the extent that this invention is applicable to the dispensing of other beverages than beer, such application and use is within the scope of equivalents of this invention.
A portable beer dispenser includes a compartment for receiving a barrel of beer, a facility for cooling the beer, a beer-drawing mechanism and a gas tank, or the like, for applying pressure to drive the beer through the beer-drawing mechanism. The facility for cooling the beer is an ice chest in which there is a cold plate through which the beer is conducted. Ice is deposited in the ice chest to provide the cooling. Cserny, U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,668, typifies the prior art of portable beverage dispensers. Cserny suffers from the disadvantage that it includes a refrigerator which requires electrical power for operation. The demand for electric power is a serious impediment to portability and to the uses to which a beverage dispenser can be put.
Rice, U.S. Pat. No. 1,772,111, also typifies the prior art of portable beverage dispensers. Rice discloses a dispenser which does not require electric power facilities, but it has other disadvantages. In Rice, the beverage container is disposed in an open compartment. The beverage is supplied from the container to a spout through cooling coils which are contained in a cooling chamber insulated from the compartment in which the beverage container is disposed. Beer dispensers as disclosed in Rice would produce what is called "picnic beer". A glass or mug of "picnic beer" is mostly foam. Another disadvantage of a dispenser such as is shown in Rice, is that it does not lend itself to use in the home over a period of several weeks. Since only the cooling coils are cooled, the beer in the barrel would remain warm when not in use and would disintegrate and sour.
It is an object of this invention to provide a portable beverage dispenser, particularly a beer dispenser, which shall not require electric power facilities and in whose use a palatable cold beverage, free of the properties of "picnic beer", shall be delivered.